Experiencing Canada

     Bizarre hostel story #4: When I went to sleep last night, one of the guys in my dorm was playing music on his laptop.  A little rude, but it was pretty quiet so I didn't think much of it.  Before I woke up, I was having this weird dream that Jen and I were trapped in Quebec City and there were French children marching around us singing some weird song.  When I woke up I found out the song wasn't a dream - the laptop was now BLARING some weird French children's music.  The smart thing to do would to have woken him up (because he probably woke everybody else up!) and turn off his laptop, but I was strangely afraid that everybody else in the dorm was in on this - like maybe this was the only way they could sleep.  So I went and crashed on the couch, and when I came back he was gone, thank God. That morning Jen and I went to the Pier 21 museum.  We were incredibly amused when we found out one of the major features was a virtual train ride across Canada!  We got on board and stared at Northern Ontario for a while longer, because clearly we hadn't seen it enough.  It was funny listening to all of the people watching it and saying "Oh I'd love to go across the country by train!" I felt like just telling them "Well then do it! I just did it, it's awesome!" but instead I went and got my little Pier 21 passport stamped at the stamping stations. One necessary thing to do in Halifax was dip our hands in the Atlantic ocean, so that we did, but we became incredibly distracted by these ball-like jellyfish that kept changing colour psychedelically.  Perhaps it was a side effect of the copious amounts of beer consumed on this trip, but it was very cool, just the same.

   The whole town of Halifax was pretty much booked up for the Hockey World Cup, so we were exiled across the harbour to Dartmouth that night.  They couldn't keep us away for long though! After sitting out on our balcony, drinking vodka out of plastic cups and eating mixed nuts that I'd been given in Winnipeg, we headed back to the city and found another Irish pub - but this one had a live fiddler which was another thing I really wanted to see in Halifax.  I was not disappointed, though I was momentarily distracted when Jen flung her arm out and hit a pot of boiling cheese.

  As much as I like hostels, I was very happy to be in a hotel bed that night.